About Me

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day--a special day for romance that was created to honor Saint Valentine, the patron saint of love, young people and happy marriages. One can't help but think of Romeo and Juliet in this instance. For those who fall into the "Love Stinks" camp, Saint Valentine was eventually beaten, stoned to death and beheaded for marrying young Christians and spreading Christianity.

Romeo and Juliet's romance ended tragically as well. Romeo, thinking Juliet was dead when she was asleep, committed suicide by poisoning himself. Juliet, upon waking up and discovering Romeo had killed himself, took her own life too with a daggar to the heart.

Jesus loved like no other on this earth and he was beaten, humilated and nailed to a cross.

What is the moral of the story here?

That Love stinks? No.

Faith

Saint Valentine had love and faith. Christ had love and faith. Those who persecuted them did not.

Romeo and Juliet had tremendous romantic love but they were weak in faith in the end.

"Where there is love, there is God also"

-- Leo Tolstoy

Great love requires great faith. If you want the love that can move mountains, it requires the faith that can move mountains. No matter how good and well-intentioned one is, we are all human and we will eventually disappoint and hurt the ones we love. Having a strong faith will give us the necessary forgiveness and patience. And being a true follower of Christ will guide in love because He was the greatest example of the love we will ever know.

Finally, love is not an emotion or feeling, love is a decision. God gave us free will, we can choose to love or not. A person's level of faith will be the greatest determinant of their ability to love. Apostle Paul told us the importance of love.

Corinthians 13:13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Corinthians 13:2: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Love can be fatal as the examples noted above. But there are many other things that one can die from. Just remember who will be remembered most.